Sorry!
I said I was going to update and I lied again. I swear I'm trying to remember to continuously update but I have the memory of a goldfish!
We did have a show on March 22nd. It went fantastic, not counting that I had forgotten my bridle and a friend had to drive back to the barn quickly! I went there mainly for experience as the facility was big and intimidating, and so was the competition. As I said, the show was aimed for Trillium and A riders, not many little schooling show horses there.
Warm up was great to begin with, although it was incredibly crowded. We did get a couple stares as we were the oddest looking team, but it didn't matter.
We ended up going great for the first division, Symbah didn't seem spooky or anything. Usually I have a crop on me to pick up a bit more speed but I had to rein him in a bit more. He absolutely loved it! The arena was much bigger and more room to move about. He went over all the jumps but upon doing the finishing line he got too strong and drifted too far - practically cantered right back the jump. But a simple circle and we finished the last jump just fine.
Didn't do well for that course and didn't place compared to the trilly and A horses there. No harm though, I wasn't there for ribbons.
The second and third course went a million times better and most of my riding pictures have me grinning like an idiot as I was also having a ball. We did end up placing just out of the ribbons but I'm still proud - we weren't dead last. We were just placed behind the top 5 trillium/A horses so I think that's a great accomplishment!
We then finished up the Blacks Equine Centre winter schooling series on April 5th. It was great, probably the best run of courses we've ever done together. A friend of mine came along to show for the first time on a great packer and came out champion for our novice - I was extremely proud for her!
I ended up receiving a 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th for the division. We're still having issues with our lead swaps (he's great for trying but he's trying at the worst moment and becoming disunited.. it's something we're working on!). BUT we were overall Reserve Champion for the winter series.
Definately a proud moment! I've never won a series before like that, and while it's not Champion (we almost beat them) it's just as good!
So now our winter show season is over and we're in a lull. There's no shows until the end of May so we've been trying to work on our flat work, our communication and our form overfences. We have been schooling at 2'6 so far and even have done a mini course of 2'9. He's a lot more tight and cleaner over fences at 2'9 than below though. Which I think is both good and bad. But for now, we're schooling 2'6.
Unfortunately, a little over a week ago Symbah hurt his eye and had been out of commission. On sunday, we were finally able to play around out in the grass field with a flymask on but hadn't been allowed in the arenas. Now he's got the all clear but I haven't been able to get to the barn recently so he's been out for about 1.5-2 weeks. And in his stall about 95% of that time. Poor guy! I'll be bringing him back again though, to prepare for the future show season.
For now, I'm looking at doing the Juniors at the Ancaster Saddle Club this summer (starting May 24th). It's at the 2'3 height which I think is good for introduction. It's still in the air about the second series I'll do. I'm thinking of doing Twinholm 2'6 division however I'm just not sure - it'd make it difficult for me as it's on Saturdays. I also thought about Hamilton Hunt shows as they're on grass (love it) but it's a bit more of a distance.
Grr.
So for now, Ancaster is for certain and everything else is a maybe!
I'll try to keep this updated! Even on our random rides!
